The Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300 is a thumb drive-size PC with clear limitations, but it's a serviceable Windows 10 machine that costs just $100.

The Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300 ($99.99) is a simple Windows 10 budget PC packed into a compact stick design. These stick PCs—such as the Intel Compute Stickand the Asus VivoStick PC are slowly becoming more common, but there still aren't that many out there. The Stick 300 is the least expensive so far, sitting right at the $100 mark, but there are some downsides—particularly the inclusion of just one USB port. It's on the slower side in this category, too, and the relatively slight increase in price to the $125 VivoStick or the $160 Compute Stick are worth it for the extra functionality you get. Moving away from the stick design, if that isn't a necessity for you, the Shuttle XPC Nanois our Editors' Choice budget desktop for its generous port offerings and increased speed.

Design and Features Aesthetically, there's only so much you can do with an oversized USB stick, but even with that said, the Ideacentre Stick 300 takes a hearty portion of its design cues from the Compute Stick. It's an all-black device with glossy plastic edges and duller plastic on the top and bottom. It measures 0.59 by 1.50 by 3.94 inches (HWD), which is a bit shorter and thicker than the Compute Stick (0.47 by 1.5 by 4.5 inches), giving it a somewhat stockier look. At a glance, though, the two are extremely similar, even the small indicator light, with the main differences in vent layout. The Azulle Quantum Access LAN Windows 10 Fanless Mini PC Sticksets itself apart with a ridged radial design, and the Asus VivoStick PC is slimmer and oblong rather than rectangular.

As with all of these stick PCs, the Stick 300 plugs directly into a TV's or monitor's HDMI port through a connector on its front end. Lenovo includes an HDMI extension cable in the box, since (depending on the display's port locations) fitting the nearly 4 inches of plastic behind a monitor or in a tight space can be a tough or impossible squeeze. Power is supplied through an included AC cable, which plugs into a micro USB port on the stick. Once connected and plugged in, the device is turned on by a small Power button on the top-right edge.

Port options, unsurprisingly for this type of PC, are very limited. On the right side there's one USB 2.0 port and the micro USB port for power. The left flank holds a microSD slot only. As with the Azulle stick, having just one USB port is quite restricting. Many people use wired peripherals, so connecting essentials like a mouse and keyboard could be a hassle if you don't have wireless options. The VivoStick and Compute Stick both have two USB ports (one of which on each is also faster USB 3.0), though it's worth noting the Ideacentre Stick 300 is the least expensive of the bunch. The Shuttle XPC Nano, with its bigger body and price tag, includes many more ports: four USB, Ethernet, HDMI, and Mini DisplayPort.

The Stick 300 supports Bluetooth 4.0, which gives a boost for connecting wireless peripherals that don't occupy the single port (you will need at least a wired mouse, initially, for setting up these input devices). To get online, the Stick 300 integrates 802.11b/g/n wireless—the Azulle stick is the only we've tested with an Ethernet port. The 32GB of integrated eMMC flash storage isn't a lot, but is standard for stick PCs, and the microSD slot gives you room to expand. The Intel Compute Stick offers the same amount, as do the Azulle stick and the Asus VivoStick, while only the Chrome OS–based Asus Chromebithas less (16GB). As with the other Windows systems, a good portion of the 32GB is taken up by the OS—only about 18GB of space is free.

PerformanceThe Ideacentre Stick 300 is based on the same processor as the 2015 Compute Stick, a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735F, and features 2GB of memory. The more dated CPU will unfortunately mean slower speeds overall, but it is a way to keep the cost down, and at $99, that seems to be what Lenovo is going for. On the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, the Stick 300 scored 1,330 points, which is essentially even with the 2016 Compute Stick (1,324) for benchmark testing purposes. The Azulle Quantum Access Stick, which also uses the Atom Z3735F processor, also came up short at 1,314. The VivoStick scored 1,363, and the 2015 Compute Stick led the way with 1,414.

With the exception of the Asus VivoStick, these stick PCs all run 32-bit operating systems, which prevents us from running some 64-bit tests like CineBench and Photoshop. The HandBrake video encoding test, though, is still able to run on these systems, and the Stick 300 finished in 10 minutes, 51 seconds. This was the slowest time among these PCs by several minutes, with the XPC Nano (7:06) and the 2015 Compute Stick (8:20) at the top of the pack. Gaming is out of the question on these sticks, with none of them reaching more than 6 frames per second (fps) on the medium quality settings Heaven and Valley tests—the Stick 300 topped off at just 2fps. All of that said, this is an inexpensive PC meant more for simple tasks and web browsing, so bear in mind heavy computing and media projects are not its purpose.

Conclusion As the least expensive of the PC sticks we've tested, the Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300 is a serviceable Windows 10 system for $100. It's not particularly quick, and like most of these PCs, runs a more limited 32-bit OS. The single USB port is limiting, and the Intel Compute Stick and Asus VivoStick each offer two. Though they are $60 and $25 more expensive, respectively, the added functionality (particularly from the 64-bit VivoStick) is worth the jump in price. If you can forgo the stick design (and afford the $279 price), the Shuttle XPC Nano is our top-pick budget desktop.

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About the Author

Matthew Buzzi is a Hardware Analyst at PCMag, focusing on laptops and desktops with a specialty in gaming systems and games. Matthew earned a degree in Mass Communications/Journalism and interned for a college semester at Kotaku, writing about gaming before turning it into part of his career. He spends entirely too much time on Twitter (find him @M... See Full Bio

Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300

Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300

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